Moroccan knife attacker charged with Finland terror murders

February 28, 2018

HELSINKI (AP) — Finnish prosecutors say a Moroccan asylum seeker has been charged with two terror-related murders and an attempt to murder eight others during a stabbing attack in the south west of the country last year.

The state prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that Abderrahman Bouanane is suspected of “aiming to cause serious fear among the population” in the Aug. 18 attack in the western city of Turku that left two women dead and eight wounded.

The defendant, born 1994, has pleaded guilty to the stabbings but hasn’t clearly expressed whether he acted with terrorist intent as prosecutors allege.

Finnish police said earlier that Bouanane became radicalized some three months before the attack and though strongly identified with the Islamic State group is believed to have acted alone.